It's Andy Fish!

Nobody eats fast food, right? If you went solely on how people talk WENDY’S ™ McDONALD’S ™ and BURGER KING ™ would have all been shuttered and boarded up with the producers of THE WALKING DEAD renting out the buildings for apocalyptic backgrounds.

I eat the stuff, nowhere near as much as some of my friends do, in fact I’ve got one friend who is my age who eats at these places 3-4x a week! I can’t fathom how that must affect your system.

I can tell you truthfully that I’ve yet to see any one of these chains run a halfway decent operation– to the point that it’s honestly human drama right before your eyes as they try to get orders out- throw out the bums, clean up what looks like five two year old birthday party celebrations and still manage to get pickles on the burger in a timely fashion.

CHIC FIL A ™ where I don’t eat much has everything down to a science; from well trained employees who actually seem to like working there to clipboard carrying folks in the multi car drive thru’s keeping everything working like a clock. Turnover all government operations to the people who run CHIC FIL A ™ and you’ll never see a line at the DMV again.

But while CHIC FIL A ™ thrives, the steadfast giants in the industry falter. Why?

Staffing. I’ve never had to help clean up a CHIC FIL A ™ dining room while I waited for my order. Neither have I ever seen a manager slam his fist on the counter shouting “Jesus Christ!”, or staff standing around talking while orders pile up, or a mob of people standing around the pickup area desperately waiting for their order. I can’t say that about the big three.

Quality. I used to say that a Whopper ™ made my way– no mayo, no lettuce, no tomatoes but mustard, ketchup, onions and extra pickles was as good a burger as you could find anywhere. Not so anymore. I ordered one recently– and you know one of the reasons I like to custom order is then I know the burger is made fresh and not sitting there under the warming light– and it was ice cold, below room temperature– I’m not sure how you manage that. After waiting 15 minutes for it, I took it back up to the counter and told the manager, he took the burger and said “Again?” and threw it in the trash promising to make me a hot one. I didn’t have the 15 additional minutes to spare so I left.

I used to stop and get the Wendy’s ™ chili because it was worth a stop, I don’t know what they did to it but it’s nowhere near what it used to be.

The McDonald’s ™ near me is a performance show. Unlike most places, these kids are killing themselves trying to get the orders out, but it must be the busiest location in the Northeast because the orders just keep coming. I actually defend them to angry customers waiting with me, but clearly this franchise location is holding the payroll strings way too tight because they need at least five more people.

Now compare this to the Dunkin’ ™ across the street– I don’t even like Dunkin’ ™ all that much but if I want a hot breakfast sandwich fast this is the place to go. In the time it takes to order at the register and walk to the pickup area your order is being handed to you– and it’s hot as lava and done however you asked for it.

Staffing and quality are what is killing the Big Three fast food joints. Never mind re-branding, pricing is an issue for sure- used to be you could feed three people on $20 now you’re luck if you have lunch for that- but the bad execution and the poor quality of the food is what is killing your business.

That’s a lesson for a lot of retailers– train your staff, treat them well. Morale plummets when people feel like they’re overtasked or they don’t understand their duties. Train people correctly and everything else will fall into place.